Building developer Cooper and Company has opened a new retail precinct in the $1 billion Britomart area near Auckland's waterfront.

The leafy garden-style Pavilions shopping and dining area is behind the former Chief Post Office, between Tyler St and Galway St and in front of Takutai Square.

Beauty and fashion shops Bobbi Brown, Juliette Hogan, Karen Walker and Taylor Boutique and designer shoe boutiques Kathryn Wilson and Lineage are in the precinct. The last two stores in the foliage-themed complex - Trelise Cooper and Trelise Cooper Boardroom - open on Saturday.

Ortolana bistro, Milse dessert restaurant and artisan bakery and gelateria The Store open there soon.

Nat Cheshire of Cheshire Architects designed the new precinct and said people looked surprised when they visited.

"At the Pavilions we set out to design an experience rather than a building. We wanted the transformation to spread ... and begin infiltrating the lanes and squares that surround it. We wanted to do to Britomart's days what, collectively, we'd already done to its nights."

A pop-up store for Republic Home has just opened at Atrium on Takutai and Japanese shochu and snack bar Fukuko and Seletti Boutique opened on Tyler St on Friday.

Cooper and Company said the Pavilions will eventually extend to and incorporate the two existing adjacent black-mesh buildings, also designed by Cheshire, housing Yoobee, Onitsuka Tiger, Timberland and Lululemon Athletica stores.